With This Ring (I Thee Wed)
by Lil' Ass Kicker
Summary: Emma loses her wedding and engagement rings whilst out with Killian, and he learns that they're far more than just rings to her.


_**I do not own OUAT, any of it's cast or characters, this is purely for people to read and get over the fact that Jennifer isn't joining us for Season 7, yet to remind everyone that Colin is still there and I love and trust him to make season 7 as good as they can without the lovely Jennifer.**_

 **With This Ring (I Thee Wed)**

 **3** **rd** **Person **

Emma sighs as she gently pulls her wedding ring and engagement rings off her finger, placing them safely in the locker.

She dislikes taking off her rings, she hates feeling the loss of them off her finger, she feels naked without them ever since Killian slid them on her finger less than ten months ago.

Emma never saw herself getting married as a little girl, she never saw herself growing up and falling in love, buying a big house with far too many bedrooms for two (occasionally three) people to live in, and a big white, fancy wedding with all of her family smiling.

(To be honest, she certainly didn't see herself marrying Captain Hook, but she couldn't be happier that she married a man like Killian Jones.)

Having a husband is strange, despite the fact they've been married for a few months now, and they were dating before and living together. But the thing is, everything changed when she got married.

For starters, her name changed. Gone was Emma Swan, and Emma Jones came along to replace her maiden name, something she was adamant she wanted, not just because her husband wanted her to, but also because she did.

(Not that he pressured her to, of course, Killian wouldn't dream of doing that, but she saw the look in his eyes when she was toying with names, she saw how happy Emma Jones made him, like it showed their commitment, like it showed she was there to stay just by her changing her name.

She liked it nonetheless.)

It felt strange to have people address her as Mrs. Jones, getting letters with that written on, and when she wrote her name she had only just gotten used to writing J instead of immediately writing Swan.

It's strange but quite wonderful.

People told her that when she got married things would change, making it sound so ominous and like it was a dreaded thing, like she'd suddenly become an entirely different person. But they were wrong. Marriage changed her, sure, but it also changed little things in her and Killian's relationship.

Every morning he comes down the stairs and kisses her cheek, whispering 'Mrs. Jones' into her hair as a greeting before going to sit down, they address each other as husband and wife when they're feeling silly or before bed. They say goodnight as Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Cheesy, but she quite liked the idea that every night she got to go to bed in her _husband's_ arms.

Most of the town takes to asking her how married life is, asking to see her rings, asking about future Jones babies running around, but she finds herself passing the children comment for now. She wants to enjoy just being them for now, just being married and happy and the quiet life.

(They've spoken about children, a few times actually, and Killian has told her that she just has to give him the word and he's more then happy to start their family.)

Women around town mostly take to asking her about her rings, wanting to stare at them again, which brings her to why she hates taking them off.

They go swimming quite often, as they have the time to do that now that there's no looming threat hanging over their heads. Every Saturday they go, and it's relaxing and fun for them just to be together.

However, she always takes off her wedding rings. It's not for any sordid reasoning, it's just because she doesn't want to get chlorine on them, and she worries that the water will get in-between the diamond and cause the stone to come loose. Killian understands that.

It doesn't mean either of them like her being ring-less.

It's not until after they swim for the better part of two hours that they come out of the pool and she goes to her locker, finding it open despite the fact she's fully aware she locked it before she got in the pool.

Quickly, she grabs all the things from the locker and goes into a stall to get changed, being careful not to drop anything, and gets dressed as quickly as possible before searching for her rings, panicking when she can't find them.

She spends the next ten minutes searching everything she owns, the locker again and the stall, even retracing her steps and asking someone but they say they saw nothing.

When Killian comes out of a stall fully dressed, he offers her a smile and she just covers her ring less hand with her jumper, taking his arm when he offers it, walking out of the leisure center panicking about where the hell her rings are.

They go home and she pretends that she needs to clean just so that she can put on some gloves and he won't notice her hand, and it works until it's the night time and she's been hiding her hand all day, silently worrying about her rings and where they could possibly be.

She just doesn't know how she could have lost them.

* * *

It's not until she heads to bed, going to take off her rings to put on hand lotion, that she finally realizes that Killian will notice.

They have a habit of holding each other's hands while they sleep, laying their hands on his chest as she cuddles into his side, and he'll certainly notice if she's missing her rings.

Killian steps out of the bathroom from where he'd been brushing his teeth, heading into bed and pressing a kiss to the side of her head before laying back, and she slowly lays back on him. "Goodnight, love." He whispers softly. "I love you, Mrs. Jones." He smiles into her hair, making her bite her lip.

"Killian…" She whispers softly as she feels his hand traveling down her arm to find her hand. "I lost my rings." She whispers so quietly she's surprised he hears, curling up with her hands close to her chest.

"What?" Killian quickly sits up with her, taking her hand to get a look himself to make sure she isn't just messing around. "How? When?"

She bites her lip, looking away, not liking to look at her hand. "At the pool." She whispers, sniffling softly. "I put it in the locker like I always do and when I came back my locker was open and I looked everywhere for my ring, I really did, I promise I did." She lets a tear fall; more upset than she lets on over the fact she hasn't got her rings. "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, hey…" He whispers, gently cupping her cheek to wipe away her tear, kissing her temple as he pulls her closer, practically into his lap, and it just makes her begin to cry into his hand quietly. "It's okay, Swan, honestly…we'll just go to lost and found."

She shakes her head, crying as she buries her face into his chest. "I already t-tried there, but t-they s-said they hadn't f-found it but they'd call me i-i-if anyone did." She sobs out, wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him closer, not letting go.

"Swan, love, it's really okay." He whispers, stroking her back slowly. "It's not the end of the world, we'll find them one way or another."

"But I lost them." She sobs into his chest. "Y-You spend ages trying to find m-me the perfect ring and then I just go and lose the most precious jewelry I own."

"Love, it's just a ring." He strokes her cheek gently. "I can get you another one, a replica if you fancy it, and your wedding ring, it can always be fixed rather simply. I promise, there's no reason to be so upset."

"But there is." She sobs harder, holding him closer. "Because I want _my_ rings, not some replica rings, it's not the same. They aren't the rings that you put on my finger when I felt so loved, more loved then I ever have…they aren't the rings that you spent ages picking the right ones you knew would match and spend a fortune on because we had to get mine made smaller because I have stupidly small fingers!"

"Swan, Swan…" He pulls her head away from his neck to look into her eyes, stroking away her tears, frowning. "Do you fancy telling me why you're more upset then I'd imagine you'd be losing the rings?" He whispers, having an idea but he doesn't want to put words in her mouth.

Emma bites her lip, looking in his eyes for a moment, sniffling. "B-Because…I never thought I'd get married, I never thought anyone would love me enough to marry me, and the rings were my reminder that someone did. You do." She whispers. "They were my reminder that you put up with me, that you spent time on picking them out because it mattered, and that you spent an extraordinary amount of money to make sure they fit my finger perfectly instead of not bothering and making me live with a loose ring…"

"I do it because I love you, you know that, you don't need a ring for that…"

"But it's my reminder." She sobs softly, her face crumpling up. "I'll be at work, maybe having a bad day, and I'll look at my ring and know you're going to be at home when I get there or that you're coming in to work soon…I go to sleep holding your hand and our rings touch, and I wake up and I watch when you stroke them, like you're reminding yourself every morning that I'm still here."

"But-"

"But now I've taken that away." She whispers sadly. "Tomorrow morning you'll wake up and I won't have the rings on and tonight I won't and you'll be sad too and it's all my fault."

"Emma, I promise, this isn't your fault. There are just some horrible people out there, and if they saw you taking off your rings then they knew they were worth money, they probably just broke in thinking you wouldn't care, but we can fix it, love, I promise you."

"But I feel so naked without them." She whispers, and he pulls away, making her frown.

Emma watches as he walks over to her makeup table, going into a drawer and grabbing a ring her brought her on their anniversary just after they got married, having been together for three years. "What…" She sniffles as he walks over to the bed, getting on one knee in front of her.

"Emma Jones, please will you accept this ring and wear it until we find you your original rings?" He asks and she nods quickly, watching him slip the ring on her wedding finger, before kissing her finger. "There."

She offers him a small smile as he gets back into bed, laying on his chest and pushing him to lie back with her. "Thank you." She whispers. "I love you, Mr. Jones."

He smiles softly as he presses a kiss to her hair. "I love you too, Mrs. Jones. Don't forget that."

* * *

Emma goes on a search for her rings as soon as she can the next day, even going as far as calling the place every hour to make sure no one's found them yet, coming up unsuccessful.

In the end, she heads to Granny's for lunch with her mother, and as soon as she sits down she's grilled by Grumpy. "Sister, are you okay?" He asks, nodding his head pointedly in the direction of her now ring-less finger (she'd taken off the fake engagement ring as it felt too wrong). "I'm sorry you and Hook are getting divorced."

"We're not." She glances down at her finger. "I lost my rings, we're trying to find them again, let me know if you find them?"

Grumpy nods, eyeing her suspiciously for a moment before going back to her food, and when her mother comes into the diner she doesn't seem to notice.

It's not until Emma goes to grab her phone when she gets a text that her mother asks. "EMMA! Where are your rings? Are you two getting a divorce? NO! Why?"

"Emma and Killian are getting divorced?" Ruby asks as she brings over Emma's cocoa and Snow's water. "Why?"

"Does this mean we can have back the gifts we got you?" Whale asks from somewhere in the room.

Emma sends a pointed glare in his direction, making him shrivel a little.

"Oh Emma, I'm so sorry to hear that, you know you two could always come to me for counseling if you needed it, there's no problem that talking it through couldn't solve." Archie pipes up and Emma offers him a kind smile but shakes her head.

"No, no, you all have it wrong!" She quickly exclaims, biting her lip. "I lost my rings." She admits with a frown, looking down at her bare hand. "We went swimming and I took them off, I put them in a safe because I didn't want water to get in the stone and cause it to come loose, but when I came back my locker was open, my rings were gone, and only my clothes were there."

"Emma, sweetie, that's so awful." Her mother says softly, taking Emma's hand sand stroking her knuckle in a comforting gesture. "I'm sure you'll find them sometime soon." Snow assures her, sighing when Emma takes her hand away.

"Yeah, I guess…I just feel so stupid for losing them, but I guess it doesn't matter, it's no big deal." Emma lies.

"No, it's a big deal." Ruby states simply. "If I lost my wedding rings I'd be pissed off, someone must have stolen them." She shrugs. "Those rings cost Killian quite a lot of money, my best bet is someone saw you put them in the locker and stole them to make some quick cash."

"I'd be so irritated if I was Killian, spending all that money to lose them so easily, how-"

"It's NOT about the money!" Emma jumps up, frowning, and grabs her jacket. "It's never been about the stupid money, Killian and I don't care about it! It's the sentiment!" She storms off, slamming Granny's door so hard behind her that the bell falls after she leaves.

"That went well…" Snow sighs.

* * *

Emma goes into the station with a determined look on her face, growling when her father asks about the disappearance of her ring, going into her office and grabbing the rum she keeps under her desk. She pours herself a large amount into a glass and downs it, before turning her head to answer David.

"No, we are not getting a divorce, no I do not hate him, no we have not fallen out of love, no I do not just take it off for the hell of it, I LOST IT!" She yells, falling to sit on her desk with a sigh.

"How on earth did you lose a- never mind." David figures it best not to argue with her and irritate her more. "Anyway, I caught someone stealing from the jewelry store today, they said they tried to sell something but they got rejected…and so they tried to steal the other items, but she tripped the alarm system."

"Well done her." Emma sighs, and glances over to the cells where there's a girl walking around a cell, frowning as she looks bored. "What was she trying to sell?"

"Some rings." David shrugs. "She has them in her pocket but says she won't show me, apparently a lady never shows or whatever. I didn't want to argue with her."

"Probably best." Emma agrees, heading over to the girl in the cell, offering her a small smile. "Can I get you anything? Water, tea, coffee, some food?" She asks softly.

"You're being nice to me…why?" She stands straight, and Emma realizes how young she looks, glancing over her file that David hands her, seeing she's only sixteen.

"I've had my fair share of shitty cops yelling at me for things…yeah you did a bad thing but that doesn't mean you deserve to starve."

"Can I have some water, please?" She says softly after a moment, watching as Emma goes to get it.

When Emma comes back, she takes the water gently, taking a sip before placing it on the ground. "I'm sorry, Sheriff…"

Emma raises an eyebrow. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing too, whosever rings you were trying to sell and the man you tried to rob are the people you should say sorry too."

The girl looks away, reaching into her jeans pocket and showing Emma the rings she has. "I'm sorry, Sheriff…"

Glancing down at the rings, Emma frowns, as she knows those rings. Those are her rings. "Where did you get these?" She takes them quickly, not allowing it to chance to lose them again. "These are mine…"

"I know." The girl looks away, putting her hands in her pocket. "My friend took them, said they belonged to Sheriff Jones, that you and your husband had loads of money and it wouldn't matter, that he'd just buy you more rings, so I didn't feel bad." She tells her, sighing. "But then I heard you just now to your dad, and I realized that it was wrong."

"Why did you not just bring them to me before? Everyone knows where I live, it's common knowledge."

"Like I said, you have tons of money, more then I could ever dream of having, and I have nothing fancy or cool. I'm living in a kind of old place with my parents, but I figured if I sold those then I could get a good price, then I could get myself some stuff, things like you have. I mean my parents are good and we aren't struggling, it's just nice to have money."

Emma glances up at her, putting the rings back on her finger immediately, breathing a sigh of relief to have them back on her finger, and she feels a pang of sympathy but isn't sure why. Sure, this girl hasn't got expensive things, but she has got a family, and Emma would rather have that.

"Just don't steal from people anymore. I'll let you off now, but not again."

The girl shrugs, and sighs softly, hiding a laugh. "It's okay, at least I got to spend the day in a warm jail cell, with a kind of comfortable bed, and I got some water, that's a successful day. That and I can tell all my mates that I got to get out of a jail cell."

"Hardly a great story."

"Nope." She smirks. "But interesting."

"I suppose…" Emma steps to her slowly, frowning. "But don't ever steal from me again, especially not my wedding rings, got it? I don't care how much you want money, you have a family, and you don't take my things mine got me. Clear?"

"Crystal."

* * *

When Emma comes back home, she spends most of her time staring at her rings; glad she has them back and goes to the kitchen to grab some food.

As she's making herself a sandwich, two arms wrap around her middle, and she feels her husband press a kiss to the side of her head. "Afternoon wife."

She smirks and turns to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Dad told you?"

Killian nods and he takes her left hand, smiling at the rings, before pressing a kiss to them gently. "Yeah…he told me everything. Did you let the girl off?"

She nods. "Yup…she ended up revealing how she wanted to use the money for a new jacket and some heels she found, but her mother said was inappropriate."

"How can that be-"

"Seven-inch heels, coat smaller than my bra." Emma smiles and kisses him gently, before resting her forehead against his chin, cuddling up to him.

"Mh…" He thinks. "I suppose that is inappropriate, love." He hums, stroking her hair. "I'm just glad you have your rings back, Mrs. Jones."

Emma smiles and kisses him again slowly, cupping his cheek. "Mh, I'm glad too, Mr. Jones."

"I love you so much, Swan, and next time…maybe be more careful where you put your rings?"

"I promise I will always be careful from now on." She smiles. "And I love you too, Killian."

"Good, I'm glad…" His hands slowly drift down her back before he's cupping her ass in his hands, smirking. "Now what do you say we go reaffirm how much I love my wife despite the fact you lost the rings?"

She pinches his shoulder before jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist, grateful that he holds her steady.

"Lead the way, Mr. Jones."

* * *

 **This was just a small one shot, because I had a dream where Emma lost her rings and it was so vivid so I know I had to write it down somewhere or I'd go mental. So here it is. Let me know if it's total shite, or good, or amazing, or just average. I don't know, so you lot please let me know.  
**

 **I'd appreciate that very much! :)**


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